The Civil War House
by BML Hillen-Keene
Summary: The Magnificent Seven Supernatural Universe. Ezra needs help with a Poltergiest to get an item for a paying customer, and so he calls in his brothers for help. But dark, and evil things await in the Civil War House.


_Part of the Magnificent Seven Supernatural universe. Set long before Things are Coming Together and Condition. This story is about the dynamics between Chris, Vin and Ezra, who are half brothers in this series. Set within the Supernatural universe, which means that Sam and Dean are still running around out there somewhere. Do not expect updates often, unfortunately I am busy with a lot of other things. Please check out my website_ www(.)bmlhillenkeene(.)webs(.)com _(I'm gonna ask simply because I would like if people did, take out the () and visit, I would truly appreciate it), and review this story if you enjoyed it._

**The Civil War House**

It was not often that Ezra allowed himself to be dragged back into the world of hunting; after all, he spent most of his time growing up, with his mother, Maude, who was actually a demon herself. Gifted by her father to be able to possess a human woman and take her over completely so as to be able to produce a true half breed demon child. With this part of his genealogy looming over his head, Ezra had avoided his father and two half brothers as much as he could after they had turned to hunting, afraid of what they would do to him and to his mother should they find out about his little Demon problem.

His teenage years had been very difficult, and his contact with his brothers became completely cut off. Ezra you see, had manifested into his demon powers as a child, coached by Maude and taught to control it. But as puberty hit and his hormones went off the scale that control waned, and as his power was something that would definitely be noticed and remarked upon he had dropped out of sight. You see, Ezra could assume the illusion of another person, many other people if he wanted, of both genders. The illusion was not all it was, because if he wanted he could make a complete switch into another person. He dared not think what it would have been like for him had it happened in the presence of his father and brothers. As much as he loved them, Maude had ingrained his fear of hunters deep inside him from a very early age.

For his own protection of course.

But after Vin had shown up on his doorstep after five years of no contact, to tell him that Chris had gone completely off the edge after he had returned home to find it burned down and the bodies of his wife and child found in the wreckage, with four year old Adam missing. Chris blamed the demon who had been the cause of Vin's mother's death, and had gone off alone to try and find it. Ezra had been catapulted right into his brothers' world, somehow become a member of the ragtag little group that Chris and Vin had managed to build around themselves. They had of course stopped Chris doing something very stupid, and had even managed to find out that Adam might still be alive.

Over a year since and they were no further in finding Adam, but they had discovered that Vin had some demonic powers. Ezra had watched guardedly as Chris had been told, ready to leap in and defend his younger brother in an instant should Chris turn. Chris however, and indeed the others, had taken this news with good grace, telling him that it wasn't his fault that the Yellow-Eyed demon had done this, after all it wasn't like he had been born a demon.

That was when Ezra knew he could not afford to tell any of them, not even Vin, of his own demonic heritage. And he had continued to distance himself, not allowing any of the other six men to become a huge factor in his life. He continued to ply his trade as the only reputable ancient relic and magical artefacts in both his own form, and in the form of Bela, the only other form he used with any consistency. Hunting he left to his brothers and their friends, being careful to, from time to time, steer them away from anywhere that Maude might be. The woman might be exasperating at times, but she was his mother, and for a demon she was actually not too disrupting. She never killed anyone, or caused too much of a ruckus.

So finding himself sitting in his car, outside the roadside bar, a hunters bar, on one of the small winding roads that no one ever travelled on, that was owned by Buck Wilmington, a semi-retired hunter himself who was at the moment training up young JD Dunne. The bar was run however, by Inez, a Mexican lady on whom Buck had designs to marry and settle down with.

Chris's 4x4 stood close to the door of the bar, with Vin's shabby jeep beside it. Ezra silently cursed himself for not coming up with a better story over the phone, if he had, he could have perhaps walked in there as Bela, hired them to do this hunt for him and leave it at that. But no, he had called up Vin in something of a panic, and told him to please have Chris at the Hunters Bar waiting for him. He had not been thinking rationally at the time, but then, with what had happened he was not surprised. He was not a trained Hunter of the supernatural, he knew very little bout how to actually deal with them. After all, most supernatural things gave him a wide berth thanks to his demon half.

He would have to go in there. He would have to walk in there, right up to his brothers and ask them for their help. There was no way around it, he had to get what was in that house, there was a great deal of money resting on this retrieval, as well as something even more important. But that fact he could not reveal to his brothers. He took a deep breath to steel himself for the encounter. He knew Chris would not take kindly to being asked to help out on one of his 'Money making schemes' as he called them.

Had he been thinking, using Bela would have been a much wiser choice. Well, now was not the time for rebuking himself, he had to get in there… His hands never left the steering wheel, and he was seriously considering starting the car again and driving away, after all, it hadn't been that bad? Had it? Nothing he couldn't handle on his own. He was just being irrational. The whole thing had probably been more his imagination than anything else.

The lingering feeling of hands tracing his neck before crushing in begged to differ, but he ignored it. After all, he had faced worse odds and survived. One measly little poltergeist was a ridicules thing to go running to his brothers about.

He startled like a rabbit when the window next to him was tapped. He turned to find Vin looking in, a concerned frown on his face, the amusement he had clearly been intending to show draining from his face.

"You ok Ez?" he asked.

It took considerably more effort than normal for Ezra to school his face into a more neutral expression and answer. "Of course." He forced his hands away from the steering wheel and to the door of the car, the movement looked jerky and stilted, and he could only hope Vin Had not noticed. The frown told him he wasn't so lucky.

"Ez?" Vin asked. "Are you—"

"You two gonna stay out here?" Chris called from the door of the bar, his normal scowl firmly in place.

Ezra's eyes met Vin's in a silent plea not to say anything to Chris, he could easily read the worry in Vin's face but thankfully his brother did not give him away. "We're just coming Cowboy, go grab us a drink!"

Ezra did not make his usual request for bourbon or some other fancy liquor, but Chris did not comment, just made a huffing sound of annoyance muttering something about younger brothers, and went back inside. When he was gone Vin stepped back and allowed Ezra to exit the car, studying him hard.

"What's got ya all shook up Ez?" he asked.

"I assure you, Mr. Tanner, I am not 'all shook up'. It was merely a long drive. Now, shall e adjourn to the bar or wait for Mr. Larabee to become more exasperated by us?" he asked, easily, slipping into his normal persona.

Vin shook his head, but started walking back to the bar. "That'd be a lot more believable Ez if you was using our first names." He looked back, a knowing look on his face, and Ezra cursed his brothers perception. "But yer right about Chris, so come'on."

~*~

Chris was anxious, he hid it well beneath a dark scowl, but he was anxious. He had never claimed to be a good or fair older brother when it came to Ezra. After all, Ezra had been the second child, the one that had appeared less than a year after his mothers death and he had hated that his father was forgetting about his mother so quickly, and he blamed the new baby for it. Later, Ezra's lack of communication had driven the wedge further between them, and more recently it was his career choice, selling dangerous magical and supernatural items to idiots with too much money.

But he could not say that he did not love him, and should Ezra need him to he would lay his life on the line for him, without hesitation. But none of that was the point. The point was, in fact, that Ezra had called and asked for help. Not in so many words of course, he had asked Vin to set up a meeting for all of them, but Vin had admitted that Ezra had sounded frightened and upset a most unusual state for his brother to ever be in. And Ezra never asked for help.

In the few instances they had worked together on a hunt Ezra had been knocked about a bit, being the least experienced he was a target for the ghouls and creatures they hunted, and never once did he call for aid or ask for help patching himself up. So for him to call Vin, and not only ask for his help, but to ask they he bring Chris into the meeting was so far outside of normal Ezra parameters, that Chris was anxious.

He looked up as Ezra and Vin came inside, and his gaze flicked over Ezra, but to be honest he could not see anything different about him, Vin however seemed concerned, so Chris decided to trust his youngest brothers instincts.

"Chris." Ezra greeted, taking the seat across from him, with Vin taken the seat at the end of the table, between them.

"Ez." He responded evenly.

There was a moment of awkward silence, which Vin quickly dissipated. "What do ya need us for?" he asked, removing the need for social nicety's that both brothers found difficult in regards to the other.

Ezra tensed, so much so that even Chris noticed, and his eyes narrowed, but his voice, and tone remained neutral and gave nothing away. "I require your aid with an item I am procuring."

Chris remained silent, refusing to allow himself to pass judgement on Ezra's job, knowing that if he did Ezra would get up and walk away, and would probably end up getting himself killed doing something stupid. Ezra seemed surprised that there was no comment made, Vin was also silent, waiting.

"The item I require is in a house in the Mississippi. It is considered to be a place of dark magic. the story goes that the black slaves working on the plantation rose up near the end of the war and took the house, spurred on by a Voodoo priest of some kind. The house was inhabited by only the women and children of the family, three sisters whose husbands were fighting in the army and their seven children. The slaves tortured and killed these people in horrific ways and then lay in wait for the war to end. When the men returned after the war it was to find their families dead, they killed the Voodoo priest, but were in turn killed by the remaining slaves, who then left the house and travelled northwards." Ezra paused for a moment, taking a drink of the whisky Chris had already bought and left on the table, not complaining that it was not up to his normal drinking standards.

"It is said that the ghosts of the three soldiers search the house for the bodies of their families, which were never found, but the presence of the Voodoo priest's spirit prevents them from finding them. Many people who loved in the house over the years have documented strange occurrences, white people claim to be haunted by the priest who is trying to kill them, back people claim that the ghosts of the soldiers force them from the house."

"And you met these ghosts?" Vin asked.

Ezra shook his head. "Not met per say, more, experienced. To be honest I had put little stock into the ghost stories, but having been in the house I believe that there may be a poltergeist or something equally as sinister…" he trailed off, and Chris could read the emotions that danced across his face then. He was beginning to think it was a stupid concern, and something he should have been able to deal with himself.

"Poltergeists can be tricky bastards." Vin said.

Chris nodded. "Yeah, can kill a person who doesn't know they're there." He looked at Ezra seriously. "Your lucky you got out." It was the only hint he would offer that he understood how shaken up Ezra had been over the whole experience.

Ezra nodded briskly. "So I require your services to rid the house of this distasteful presence so that I can acquire what I need in peace." He hid his relief well Chris noted.

Chris and Vin shared a quick look and Chris nodded, looking back at Ezra. "Sure. We'll head out first thing tomorrow."

Ezra smiled, his gold tooth glinting. "I will of course reimburse you completely for the trouble." He added.

Chris glared; everything always eventually came back to money with Ezra. "Don't want your money Ezra." He said.

Vin nodded. "Family don't take money for favours Ez."

Ezra smiled winningly. "It was merely a table offer my good sirs, to sweeten the deal as it were. I am sure I pulled you from your busy demon hunting schedules."

Chris and Vin shared another look, and Chris felt a little guilty. Though Ezra's reliance on money came directly from his mother, his constant need to add an incentive to any proposition he offered his brothers was entirely Chris's fault, memories of a young Ezra bribing him with his cookies or toys just so Chris would play with him for a little while were stark in Chris's mind.

"Nothing that can't wait." Chris said finally.

"Family's family." Vin added, as if that explained all.

And perhaps it did. Family was indeed family. Ezra had joined in with the hunt for the demon that had killed Sarah and the baby, and to help locate Adam without expectation of reward, so why should Chris and Vin return the favour.

~*~

His brothers had surprised him by so easily agreeing to help Ezra out. But he refused to give in to his paranoid side which was constantly looking for an angle. He needed their help, and he would deal with whatever fallout would crop up when it did so.

Tomorrow they would begin the long journey back to that house, Chris and Vin could deal with the poltergeist, and Ezra could find the item he needed. Then the deal could be made and he could put this whole situation behind him. Perhaps take his mother to Las Vegas and enjoy the gaming tables for a while.

Tomorrow would come too soon, and he would be going back to that house… He could admit to himself that he was a little afraid.


End file.
